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Archive for the: PenCLAHRC people category

Peninsula Public Involvement Group (PenPIG) member, Malcolm, has
recently embarked on a journey to become a Cochrane Citizen
Scientist. According to Cochrane, ‘Citizen Scientists’ play an
important role in the research community and ‘help identify the
evidence needed to make informed healthcare decisions.’ For
Malcolm, becoming a ‘Citizen Scientist’ was an obvious choice due
to his experience and background.

Throughout his lifetime, like many of us, Malcolm has witnessed
his friends and family endure multiple health complications. His
experiences sparked an interest in medical research, and he soon
found himself on various boards and groups; from leading health
walks for his...

This August saw the first International Summer School Riga
(ISSR), which was hosted and organised by Rīga Stradiņš University,
Latvia. The week-long school drew in students of business,
economics, healthcare and social sciences, plus researchers and
academics from across Europe. The event focused on the
question ‘How can we solve challenges in healthcare systems by
applying economic modelling?’, and was explored through
presentations, interactive workshops and skills exchange
sessions.

Prof Martin Pitt and Dr Sean Manzi were invited to run workshops
at the summer school and give students a hands on introduction to
techniques for economic modelling in healthcare. Their
participation was...

PenCLAHRC’s Deputy Director, Professor Ken Stein, has been
appointed as Programme Director for the NIHR
Systematic Reviews (SR) Programme. The NIHR SR Programme manages
the NIHR support for Cochrane activities in the UK and the NIHR
support for the academic units on whose work all National
Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) appraisals are
based.

Ken will take on the role from September 2018, succeeding
Professor Tom Walley, who says:

“I am delighted that Ken has accepted this position. I am
confident that under Ken's leadership the NIHR SR Programme will
continue to fund and oversee vital high quality research that will
continue to provide decision makers...

Since its inception, the NHS has
constantly evolved in response to changing needs, and has
transformed the health and wellbeing of the nation. To commemorate
this, our Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) team have
created an animation encouraging public involvement in health
research.

The team worked closely with Mary,
a parent carer of a disabled child, and a member of PenCRU's
Family Faculty. In the video, Mary discusses what
persuaded to get involved in research, and why she would
encourage others to do so. ​

Dr Kristin Liabo, Senior Research
Fellow in the Patient and Public Involvement team,
emphasises...

Hypnosis could help to reduce the fear of medical procedures in
children and young people with cancer.

New research has found promising evidence that hypnosis can
reduce the distress associated with injections and other needle
procedures, such as extracting bone marrow and giving
chemotherapy.

Previous research has shown that these procedures often provoke
more anxiety in children and young people than the cancer itself.
Up to half of children with cancer experience clinically
significant emotional distress. This can cause additional anguish
for the child and for their families and have a long-lasting impact
on mental health.

Deputy Director of PenCLAHRC, Professor Ken Stein, and Director
of PenCHORD, Professor Martin Pitt, have written an article for The
Operational Research Society’s Impact magazine, in which they
discuss the ways PenCHORD research has informed decision making
within the NHS.

PenCHORD (the Peninsula Collaboration for Health Operational
Research and Development) are a team of Operational Research (OR)
specialists, who aim to help healthcare professionals make informed
decisions around organisational change. The initiative was
established in 2008, and in the years since the team have worked
with all of the trusts across the South West.

Members of the Evidence Synthesis Team (EST) have recently
travelled to London to collaborate with CLAHRC North Thames on
their ‘Beyond Searching’ Course.

Alison Bethel, Morwenna Rogers, and Rebecca Abbot
coordinated with Antonio Rojas–Garcia to deliver the workshop to 19
librarians from the NHS and various universities.

Beyond Searching was devised 5 years ago, and members of the EST
have been running annual workshops ever since. It was designed to
show health information professionals that they already have the
skills to effectively contribute to systematic reviews, and to give
them the confidence to get involved in the processes and to...

The PARTNERS2 study has been awarded a CRN, McPin
and MQ award for service user and carer involvement in mental
health research. The Engager study has also been
recognised with a highly commended runner up award.

The CRN, McPin and MQ award for service user and carer
involvement in mental health research is a joint collaboration
between NIHR Clinical Research Network, McPin Foundation,
and MQ: Transforming Mental Health. It recognises the
achievements of research teams which actively seek to involve
patients and the public at each stage of the research process, and
of service users and carers who are making a difference to mental
health research.

A robust research analysis has identified what factors can be
targeted to support people to live as well as possible with
dementia.

The study, led by the University of Exeter and published in the
journal Psychological Medicine, found that good relationships,
social engagement, better everyday functioning, good physical and
mental health, and high-quality care were all linked to better
quality of life for people with dementia.

Professor Linda Clare, at the University of Exeter, said:

“This research supports the identification of national
priorities for supporting people to live as well as possible with
dementia. While many investigations focus on prevention and better
treatments,...

PenCLAHRC Director, Professor Stuart Logan, has spoken to BBC
Radio Devon about the problems behind lengthy wait times for
non-urgent NHS operations.

Many NHS patients who require non-urgent surgery are
finding that they are faced with longer and longer waiting lists.
Over 300 people in the South West have now been waiting
for treatment for over 12 months.

In conversation with Janet Kipling on BBC Radio Devon, Stuart
notes that this is because the NHS is under heavy strain as demand
for resource increases.

“Fundamentally we just don’t have the kind of resources to be
able to deliver the kind of health care that people...